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Қазақстанның ғылымы мен өмірі – Наука и жизнь Казахстана
Science and life of Kazakhstan. №4 (31). 2015
Choose to focus on one of these. If you find a way
of improving one area…then the skill you learned
in that area can be applied to other areas. It’s not
always that straightforward, but once you get a
sense that you can improve that will provide a belief
in your own abilities. Our beliefs are an important
determinant to the outcomes we get.
So let’s for now decide to choose to improve
our recognition of the unique sounds and sound
combinations in the new language. Different exer-
cises appeal to different types of people. I will give
2 variations that will no doubt have different appeal
to different people. Read through the 2 exercises
below and choose the one that appeals to you.
Exercise 1. So choose to listen
to a one minute segment of the
audio you have obtained. Now
consciously decide to not listen
to the meaning. Focus all your
attention on the sounds. Listen
to it a few times. Then when you are ready, repeat
what you hear. Go backwards and forwards from
the original to your rendition … as long as you feel
motivated. ( You could first do this in a language you
have no knowledge of, to get a sense of the exercise)
When you are ready, record your voice and
compare the two versions. Isolate where you think
there are differences. Work at it till you get can get
no more improvement.
Then choose another 1 minute segment… Go
through the same process as before. And another.
Once you get a sense that this is getting easier
to do. Choose a 2 minute section… repeat.
When you are ready, go to a 3 minute section
and repeat the procedure you started with. Then go
back to your first recording and listen to it again
with the original. Did you notice anything new?
Persist with this exercise until you become
more and more comfortable with it, as long as you
are getting results. If you are not, tweak some aspect
of it[2].
You can also teach listening skills through
audio segments of radio programs, online podcasts,
instructional lectures and other audio messages.
You should model this interactive listening process
in class with your students, and then instruct them
to repeat the exercise on their own. First, instruct
students to prepare for listening by considering
anything that they will want to learn from the content
of the audio segment. Once they have written down
or shared these ideas, then play the audio segment,
allowing the students to take notes if helpful. Once
they have gained confidence and experience, repeat
this activity but instruct students to not take notes
until the completion of the audio segment. You
can use shorter or longer audio segments, and you
can choose more accessible or more challenging
material for this type of exercise.
Giving students’ a choice about which piece
of information they would like to listen for from
any listening task is a way of creating an effective
reason to listen. Other things the teacher can do are:
• Always to have a lead-in, e.g. engaging the
students in the topic .Pictures and other visuals on
the target listening material can be helpful to the
teacher in this step.
• To make a link between the topic
and the students’ own lives and experiences
(personalization).
• To have a pre-listening task which helps
students to focus on the task that the teacher require
the students to do when they listen., e. g. prediction
from some extracted information ( key words, title);
read questions about the listening; students compose
their own questions.
• To set a clear global listening task; Global
tasks focus on gist e. g. guess the title; put events
in the correct order; check texts against predictions
made beforehand.
• To set a clear specific listening task; Specific
tasks focus on specific details (e.g. answering
questions about specific items of information;
using the text to fill in a form etc.), require more
comprehensive understanding (e.g. comprehension
questions; discussion of issues; comparison of
viewpoints etc. ) , and test individual language items
( grammar or vocabulary; working out meaning of
words from context).
• To do a follow- up task if relevant, e.g.
speaking (role-play, debate, or writing task)[3].
In conclusion, teacher of English should always
be creative and innovative. Songs and stories in ELT
will help him or her to make the learning process
more enjoyable and effective. Furthermore, the use
of songs and stories in teaching and improving the
students’ listening and speaking skills are:
1. motivating because the students consider them
a game; 2. relaxing because it is a way of creating a
less tense EFL class; 3. confidence building because it
makes students realize they can understand and have
fun with a language different from their mother tongue;
4. exciting because it is a challenge to catch as more
detailed information or words as possible; 5. easy to do
for the teacher because you need only a song or a story
and CD-player.
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